The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court in Ernakulam on Wednesday, December 27 convicted businessman Sanu Mohan, a resident of Kochi, for killing his own 13-year-old daughter, allegedly due to financial crisis. He was sentenced to jail for 28 years. Though the prosecution argued for capital punishment, the court declined the plea. The verdict was declared by Judge K Soman.
Sanu was arrested under section 302 (murder) and 328 (causing hurt through means of poison) of the Indian Penal Code, along with provisions of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act.
On March 21, 2021, Sanu allegedly killed his 13-year-old daughter Vaiga in his residence in Kochi by strangling and dumping the body in Muttar river. Before committing the crime, he dropped off his wife Remya at a relative's house in Alappuzha, police said. According to police, Sanu had plans to eliminate his entire family as he was burdened with mounting debts.
While the initial the postmortem report classified the incident as drowning, further investigation, including chemical analysis, revealed the presence of alcohol in Vaiga's body.
After days of evading the arrest, he was caught in Karwar, Karnataka. As per his statement to police, he devised a plan to murder Vaiga and then take his own life. But police suspect that he had plans to flee the country. During their investigation, police found that Sanu attempted to buy at least three SIM cards before committing the crime.